This invention relates to the area of open cockpits, small boats, especially a motorboat.
It is recognized that an open cockpit boat or runabout is highly susceptible to swamping or flooding due to wave action and maneuvering, especially in ocean areas or on large lakes which are subject to the development of waves during storms and the like. Various expedients are known to enable such a boat to cope with a sudden influx of water.
The mechanics of mounting an outboard motor at the rear of a small boat require generally that the transom area be cut away. Additionally, the transom area is generally required to be more or less square, across the beam of the boat. These two features make the transom the most vulnerable area of a small power boat to swamping or wave action. The bow, by contrast, is shaped for easy passage through the water and generally tends to shed waves. It often, due to the distribution of weight in the boat, is also the highest point on the boat.
As a result, one of the prior art methods of reducing the vulnerability of such a boat to swamping is to put a false well at the transom area which is opened to the sea and which, generally catches most of a swamping wave and allows it to drain free; the remainder of the boat, being unswamped, retains residual buoyancy sufficient to lift the boat and permit the transom well to drain.
Other prior art expedients, most notably found in a series of boats typified by the trade name Boston Whaler are to provide some form of closed flotation within the sidewalls of the vessel so as to keep the vessel afloat even in a swamped condition.
However, the quantity of water in the vessel is such that the vessel will still swamp, and while remaining afloat, remains awash, that is the interior of the vessel is filled with more water than can be removed save by pumping. This condition generally will persist so long as the scupper valve or bilge drains are kept submerged by the weight of the water in the cockpit area.